Volume LXXII, Number 37
School Open House Section On Pages 14 - 16 Princeton Nursery School Marks 90 Years . . . . . . 5 Curbside Composting Program in Jeopardy . . 13 Electric Vehicles Increasing in Princeton Area . . . . . 12 Going Back to the Garden with Bogart and Lupino 23 Kelsey Theatre Presents Newsies . . . . . . . . . . . 26 PU Men’s Soccer Drops 1-0 Heartbreaker to Monmouth . . . . . . . . . 34 Romano Starring in Midfield for PDS Girls’ Soccer . . . . . . . . . . . . 37
Bob Surace Optimistic as PU Football Ready to Open Season . . . . . . 33 Art . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 18 Berkshire Hathaway Fox & Roach Realtors . .24, 25 Books . . . . . . . . . . . . 10 Calendar . . . . . . . . . . 31 Cinema . . . . . . . . . . . 30 Classified Ads . . . . . . 41 DVD Review . . . . . . . . 23 Mailbox . . . . . . . . . . . 10
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UN Committee Calls For the Release of PU Student in Iran
The United Nations Working Group on Arbitrary Detention has called for the immediate release of Princeton graduate student Xiyue Wang, who has been imprisoned in Iran for more than two years. The Working Group has concluded that the government of Iran had “no legal basis for the arrest and detention” of the 37-year-old history scholar, that Iran committed “multiple violations” of his right to a fair trial, and that his “deprivation of liberty is arbitrary.” Responding to a petition filed earlier this year by Wang’s wife Hua Qu and his mother, the Working Group’s report, adopted on August 23, states, “The Working Group requests the Government of the Islamic Republic of Iran to take the steps necessary to remedy the situation of Mr. Wang without delay and bring it into conformity with the relevant international norms.” It goes on to assert that the appropriate remedy would be to release Wang immediately. A naturalized American citizen and fourth-year graduate student, Wang was in Iran in 2016 to study Farsi and conduct research for his doctoral dissertation, reviewing documents dating from the late 19th and early 20th centuries in Iran’s National Archives. He was arrested in August 2016, confined in Tehran’s Evin Prison, convicted in a non-public trial on two counts of espionage, and sentenced to 10 years in prison. The Working Group, which expressed grave concerns about Wang’s health and about the conditions in which he is being held, concluded that Wang was peacefully exercising his right to seek and receive information for academic purposes; that Iran’s espionage laws are vague and overly broad; that no trial of Wang should have taken place; that the Revolutionary Courts that tried Wang and heard his appeal “do not meet the standards of an
Obituaries . . . . . . . . . 40
Town Topics News
Police Blotter . . . . . . . . 6
Witherspoon Media Group is pleased to announce that Laurie Pellichero, formerly a Contributing Editor, has been named Editor of Town Topics . Melissa Bilyeu, Operations Manager, is now Operations Director . Lynn Adams Smith remains as Publisher .
School Matters . . . . . . 17 Sports . . . . . . . . . . . . 33 Topics of the Town . . . . 5 Town Talk . . . . . . . . . . 6
Wednesday, September 12, 2018
Schools Face Resistance to Referendum Plans
The conflict seems to intensify as postponement of the Princeton Board of Education (BOE) vote on Princeton Public Schools’ (PPS) proposed $129.6M bond issue, and consequent postponement of the ballot issue until after the November 6 general election, gives both sides the opportunity to develop and clarify their cases. Last week, shortly before its Tuesday night meeting at which it was planning to vote to place the referendum on the November ballot, the BOE was informed that due to a backlog the New Jersey Department of Education (DOE) was still reviewing the district’s plans and that the referendum would have to be postponed until after the November ballot. “The NJDOE has assured us that approvals are forthcoming,” said PPS Superintendent Steve Cochrane. “The Board is taking advantage of this opportunity to continue thoughtful dialogue with the public and to chart a path forward that serves our students and is sustainable for our community.” He continued, “We look forward to communicating more with the community and want to make them aware of the following opportunities for engagement: Saturday, September 22 at 10 a.m. in the High School Cafeteria; Saturday, September 29 at 9:30 a.m. at the Witherspoon Presbyterian Church; and Thursday, October
11 at 7:30 p.m. in the John Witherspoon Auditorium.” Although the referendum ballot question was removed from last Tuesday’s BOE agenda, a sizable crowd arrived to talk about the referendum, with some 32 speakers asking the BOE to reconsider the project. A petition with 140 signatures, detailing concerns about the referendum plan, was handed to the BOE, and about 30 more residents have signed in the past week. Drafted by a small group in opposition to placing the referendum in its current form on a ballot, the petition included many of the questions and arguments that have been raised at various forums, in the me-
dia, and in a variety of discussions over the past months. The petition charges the BOE with failing to answer questions about “flaws in the demographic study…which wrongly predict higher enrollments than would be supported by a correct study”; lack of information on operations costs of the proposed work, including the new 5/6 school; the full impact of the referendum bill on individual tax bills; additional details on the high school renovation; specific costs associated with artificial turf fields; and information about the proposed work to be done at the Thanet property, including anticipated income and expenses for Continued on Page 7
Another Lawsuit Filed Naming Rider, Others in Westminster Sale
A new lawsuit has been filed by opponents of Rider University’s proposed sale of Westminster Choir College to a company they say is owned by the government of China and threatens the music school’s academic freedom. Seven people are plaintiffs in the suit filed in New Jersey Superior Court this week. It names Rider, the Westminster Choir College Acquisition Corporation, and Beijing Kaiwen Education Technology Co., Ltd., claiming that the proposed sale
is “a disguised takeover of an American college by the Chinese government,” said Bruce Afran, attorney for the Westminster Foundation, in a press release. The Foundation is made up of alumni and supporters working to maintain the choir college and protect its independence. The recent complaint joins plaintiffs with an existing lawsuit filed by Princeton Theological Seminary, which also seeks to block the sale, contending that Continued on Page 8
Continued on Page 8
Music/Theater . . . . . . 26
Religion . . . . . . . . . . . 40
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EXPLORING ART AT ACP: The Arts Council of Princeton (ACP) hosted its annual Fall Open House on Saturday afternoon, which included an opening reception for the “Members Exhibition” in the Taplin Gallery . Participants share their favorite art forms in this week’s Town Talk on page 6 . (Photo by Charles R. Plohn)
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